Anchoring a jet boat at the sandbar without eating sand: stern in, bow in, or two anchors?
Started by sandbar_weekends on Jun 13, 2025 in Jet boat talk, 7 posts
S
sandbar_weekendsOPSandbar CaptainTampa, FL33 posts, joined Jun 2025
#1
2019 Yamaha SX210, twin 1.8, 180 hours, Tampa. we go to Beer Can Island most saturdays and Three Rooker when the wind lets us. every other boat at the bar runs bow first onto the sand and everybody walks off. with a jet you are told not to, because the intake is under the stern and when you back off you pull sand straight through the pumps.
what i do now is come in slow, stop around waist deep, push a sand spike in off the stern on the shallow side and drop a bow anchor out deep. the adults carry the cooler in and the kids swim. it works. but setting two anchors with a full boat and a lab in the way is a whole production, and when the tide drops a foot and a half over the afternoon we end up sitting a lot shallower than i want.
what do you all do? and does anybody else check the tide table before they leave the house or is that just me. for the florida people, FWC has the anchoring rules and the no-anchor seagrass zones at myfwc.com, some counties add their own on top.
P
impeller_nerdPump GuruLake Elsinore, CA77 posts, joined Jun 2025
#2
stern toward the shallow side is right. the bigger rule is never run the pumps to leave. pull the boat out by the bow line to deeper water, walk it if you have to, then start it. the damage is the first ten seconds of somebody idling in reverse off a sand bottom. sand goes through an impeller like a sandblaster, it rounds the leading edges, and two weeks later you are posting here asking where 4 mph went.
on the tide, write the low tide time on a piece of tape on the dash. that is not a nerd thing, that is a cheap impeller thing.
J
rotax_shop_jenPump GuruOrlando, FL61 posts, joined Jun 2025
#3
from the shop: the sandbar boats that come in around July all have the same look inside the wear ring, a dull scuffed band right where the blade tips run. sand plus a lot of idling in and out of the bar.
if you have to idle, idle forward at the slowest speed you can over deeper water. the jet is pulling from under the hull, not from behind it. and when you get home put a hose up through the grate for a few minutes. salt and sand sitting in the pump all week does more harm than either one would alone.
T
twin_engine_dadSandbar CaptainCoeur d'Alene, ID29 posts, joined Jun 2025
#4
no tide on Coeur d'Alene, but the flats up by Harrison get thin late in the season once they start drawing the lake down after Labor Day, same problem. what works for us is a bow line run to a stake on the beach through a pulley, a stern anchor out deep, and a long loop of line so you can pull the boat in to unload and then pull it back out to float. like a clothesline. the kids fight over who gets to work the rope, which is a bonus, and nobody has to swim an anchor out.
S
sandbar_weekendsOPSandbar CaptainTampa, FL33 posts, joined Jun 2025
#5
tried the clothesline yesterday at Beer Can. stern anchor deep, stake with a pulley on the beach, line back to the bow cleat. my daughter pulled the boat in, everybody climbed off, she pulled it back out. it was great for about three hours.
then the tide turned, the stake worked loose in the wet sand, and we had a boat slowly drifting toward somebody's pontoon while i ran down the beach in flip flops. so, a longer stake. and the tape on the dash idea is now a thing on our boat.
A
mod_andre_vModeratorAustin, TX38 posts, joined Jun 2025
#6
for the Texas lake people reading this, Travis is low enough right now that most of the "beaches" are limestone shelves with a little mud on top, which is worse for a pump than sand. if you do not know a cove, idle in at a crawl and look over the bow. and do not trust last year's spot, the shoreline moved fifty yards.
K
clackamas_river_runsRamp RegularOregon City, OR21 posts, joined Jun 2025
#7
river version of the same thing. no tide where i run to speak of, but current does to us what the tide does to sandbar_weekends, it walks the boat. we nose upstream onto the gravel bars and keep the stern in the deep water, then let it drift off the bar before starting. gravel is worse than sand on the blades, ask me how i know (other thread).
Log in to reply. No account yet? Ask a mod for one, it takes a day or two.
